The name Ashton derives from Old English and means the “farmstead where the ash-trees grow”; it is a common name and is found locally in Ashton-under-Lyne in Tameside and Ashton upon Mersey in Trafford. The town’s name was recorded as Eston in 1212. Later, the suffix “in-Makerfield” was added, which relates the name of the old district of Makerfield of which Ashton was a part; Makerfield derives from the Celtic for a wall or ruin and the Old English word feld, meaning “open land”.

Ashton-in-Makerfield is a market town in Greater Manchester, England. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is 4.2 miles (6.8 km) south of the town of Wigan. In 2001 it had a population of 28,505, increasing to 28,762 at the 2011 Census.
Historically a part of Lancashire, Ashton-in-Makerfield was anciently a township in the parish of Newton-in-Makerfield (as Newton-le-Willows was once known), Winwick and hundred of West Derby. With neighbouring Haydock, Ashton-in-Makerfield was a chapelry, but the two were split in 1845. The place has long been a centre for the manufacture of locks and hinges, but also sits on the Lancashire Coalfield, and so was a coal mining district.

In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, the district was abolished, with the area split administratively. The Seneley Green Parish, containing Garswood, Pewfall and Downall Green, falling now within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in the newly created Merseyside, and the rest now being administered by the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in the newly created Greater Manchester.